Dodging Mantis
by Aello-ello
Summary: Five times Gamora avoided having her emotions read, and what happened when Peter found out why. 5 and 1 format. Peter/Gamora


**AN: Just some Peter and Gamora fluff entirely inspired by that one moment in Vol. 2 when Gamora won't let Mantis read her emotions.**

 **I don't own Guardians, but if I did I would be able to make a 100% guarantee that these two would get together in Vol. 3**

* * *

"Quill and I have a bet."

As Gamora rounded the corner she saw Peter drop his head in frustration.

"You're not supposed to say that!" he laughed.

Gamora felt herself smile a little, but as Drax began his explanation of how this strange girl's antenna might prevent her from hitting her head on doorways, she couldn't help but let her eyes be drawn to Quill. He was a splash of colour against the white, clinical walls and benches of the ship, wearing another of the t-shirts she didn't understand, this one notably tight around his shoulders. He must have felt her staring at him, because he looked up and caught her eye, causing her to heart to jump a little. She quickly looked away to focus on Drax, smiling a little at the nonsense he was arguing.

"Right, and if it's anything other than you specifically not being decapitated by a doorway, I win."

The serious nature of both of their tones amused Gamora. She was still adapting to Peter's sense of humour, but she had learnt recently that taking irrelevant debates very seriously was one of the many things he found funny.

"They are not for feeling doorways!"

One of the things that would always have amused Gamora, even before she met Quill, was the offended tone that Mantis acquired. It seemed it amused Peter too by his satisfied laugh.

"I think they have something to do with my empathic abilities." Mantis continued.

Now Gamora was interested. That sounded like it might be something useful.

"What are those?" she asked, moving closer to where her friends were seated.

"If I touch someone," Mantis explained, looking to Gamora to be a little in awe of her own abilities, but she acknowledged that might just have been due to her extremely wide eyes., "I can feel their feelings."

"You read minds?" Peter asked her.

"No, telepaths know thoughts," she corrected, "empaths feel feelings, emotions."

Gamora narrowed her eyebrows, considering the differences between these two things, and wondering which would be more useful.

"May I?" the girl asked, stretching out a hand towards Peter.

He made a noise of consent, before moving his hand to be within her reach. Gamora held her breath slightly, and the atmosphere in the room shifted to become one brimming with curiosity, yet Gamora was as on edge. She felt the muscles in her arms tense as the innocent looking girl laid her hand over Peter's, and distracted herself by noting that the antenna whose purpose had started this conversation were now glowing, thoroughly settling that debate. There was a tense pause in the room before the girl looked up, smiling.

"You feel… love."

Gamora blinked. _Love_. That was unexpected. She assumed Peter would laugh at this comment and in doing so prove the girl a liar, but instead he began to ramble a sort of defence.

"No." Mantis interrupted him. "Romantic, sexual love."

Gamora's eyes widened even more, and Peter's panicked protests only served to confirm the statement.

"For her."

Gamora felt her heart jump into her throat as she realised Mantis was now pointing at her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Peter pull his hand roughly away from the empath and she heard him begin to protest as if the sound was coming to her from underwater. She stared at Mantis in an attempt to determine if the girl was deceiving them, but she knew Peter's reaction had already confirmed it to be true.

She looked down as Drax began laughing and arguing with Quill, and took a moment to calm her heartrate. When she looked up again it was with determination to study Peter. She watched him closely as he rocked back and forth on the bench, seemingly unable to find a casual pose. His eyes darted everywhere but towards her as he tried to get Drax to stop his hysterical laughter, and Gamora almost wished he would look at her so that he would see that she wasn't laughing.

Over the sound of now both Mantis and Drax cackling she was able to hear Peter mutter,

"So unbelievably not cool."

On saying this he finally looked at her, but it wasn't long enough to actually see her, merely a glance to confirm that she was still present. Still focused on watching Peter, hoping he would look at her again, Gamora noticed Mantis trotting towards her, hand outstretched, ready to read her emotions. She grabbed the girl's wrist as soon as she was close enough, and she stopped laughing immediately.

"Touch me," Gamora made her voice as calm yet threatening as she could, "and the only thing you're gonna feel is a broken jaw."

Mantis' already impossibly large eyes widened even more, and she looked down apologetically. Gamora felt a slight twinge of guilt, because she knew the girl meant no harm, but she soon pushed it aside. Given what she had been able to read in Peter, it was worth the slight damage to ensure that the girl didn't read her emotions.

* * *

It had been a few days since Yondu's funeral and the atmosphere around the guardians was still heavy. Gamora knew that Peter was struggling, and so she did her best to keep the others, and herself, out of the way.

"Are you certain you won't let me help you?" Mantis asked her, walking down the corridor towards her. Gamora had been doing her best to avoid the strange girl and her emotion sensing powers, and it had been working well until now.

"I really am." Gamora tried to put the situation as plainly as she could to ensure she was understood.

"It can be helpful to know, I can help you to understand how you are feeling if you are unsure yourself."

The thought of Quill and her muddled feelings towards him flashed through Gamora's mind. It was a tempting offer, to finally be sure what it was she felt for the Terran.

"Let me help you?" Mantis' face had brightened considerably when it appeared that Gamora might relent, and unfortunately for her that was what reminded Gamora that this was neither the time nor the means for answering those questions.

"Definitely not." Gamora tried to laugh to lighten the tension, and began to walk past Mantis.

She reacted to the hand reaching towards her the second she saw it, grabbing the smaller girl's wrist and twisting it, then using the leverage to shove her against the wall.

Mantis' wide eyes stared up at her in fear and Gamora dropped her wrist suddenly.

"Mantis, I didn't mean to hurt you like that, I –" She took a breath and reminded herself that she was not at fault. "Don't ever read my emotions without my permission."

Mantis nodded quickly, and as soon as Gamora stepped back from her she ran down the hallway away from her. Gamora watched her leave before leaning her forearm against the wall and slamming her head onto it.

* * *

"Right so, you mean to tell me you're not just lookin' at my face and tellin', so if I stand here and grin but not feel happy you'll know that?" Rocket drawled.

"Of course!" Mantis sounded affronted at the question.

"Eh, I'll believe it when I see it." The raccoon answered.

"Well, go ahead then." Gamora interjected, as Groot nodded along from his position on her shoulder. She was curious to see if he would actually allow his emotions to be read.

The rest of the guardians nodded.

"I'm game, let's go." He answered, and began overdramatically sobbing, scrubbing at non-existent tears on his face and offering his paw to Mantis in tired, pathetic manner. She took the paw in both of her hands, and Gamora watched the ends of her antenna glow before she answered.

"You feel hungry."

Rocket stopped acting abruptly and narrowed his eyes at Mantis.

"Lucky guess." He muttered, and Gamora laughed a little.

"I have a question for you," Peter declared, and Gamora glanced at him, surprised that he was going to risk being emotion checked by Mantis again after what happened last time.

"If I think about a memory that I have a one emotion about, will you sense that emotion or my general emotional state?"

"I do not know for certain, but I believe I would sense both."

"Go on, Star-munch, your turn! See if you can outsmart her!" Rocket heckled.

Peter's eyes met Gamora's and she knew they were both remembering the last time Mantis had read Peter's emotions, but he soon dropped her gaze and she watched him swallow hard before he closed his eyes to focus on the memory and held out his hand. Gamora felt her insides go cold at the sight of the unquestionably pretty Mantis grasping Peter's calloused hands, and she was very glad Mantis was not reading her emotions at that moment.

"Your emotions are both regret from the memory and contentedness from being with your team in the present."

"I am Groot!" Groot chipped in happily beside her ear.

"You're dead right, Groot, he is sappy." Rocket declared, but Groot's annoyed glare and crossed branches made Gamora suspect mistranslation.

"What about you, Gamora?" She could feel Peter watching her closely as he addressed her. "D'you wanna have a go?"

"Gamora is the only person here whose emotions I have never read." Mantis informed them all unhelpfully.

This led to a chorus of encouragements for her to allow the empath to touch her, the loudest of them being from Drax.

"Enough!" Gamora shouted over the din. "I do not wish for Mantis to read my emotions, that is final."

She glanced over at Peter, expecting to find him confused, or perhaps even disappointed, but instead he looked intrigued, watching her as if he was figuring something out. Feeling exposed under his gaze, Gamora stood up and carefully handed Groot to Rocket before retreating to her room. She was halfway there before she heard the music begin blaring.

* * *

"Young Groot has sent me."

Gamora turned to find Mantis standing in her doorway. She ignored her and turned back to relacing her boots.

"He is concerned that you might not be well, he wishes me to sense your feelings."

Gamora laughed, but it sounded more bitter than she had intended.

"What is amusing?" Mantis asked.

"Mantis, Groot may well have told you all that, but I'd be willing to bet that it was summarised for you in the words I, Am and Groot."

The girl regarded her seriously. Sighing, Gamora finished relacing her left shoe, and began to take the laces out of her right.

"Look, I'm fine. I definitely don't need you messing with my emotions."

"We are concerned about what just happened," Mantis ploughed on, "It is not good for the team if you and Peter are not able to communicate effectively."

"Peter and I can communicate just fine, Mantis, it's nothing to worry about."

"That ain't what Groot told me!" Rocket shouted from the corridor, and, Gamora noted with despair, getting louder as he approached her room.

"And what exactly did Groot tell you then?" Gamora demanded, venting her building frustration by throwing her boot at the wall close to where Mantis was standing. She jumped, and began to stretch out her hand, but the glare Gamora directed towards her made her quickly retract it.

"He said that you two were up in the control room and you were arguing about the music, and then he said Quill tripped or something and took you to the ground with him, an' then suddenly you was up an' reading the riot act at him."

Gamora forced herself to let out the breath she was holding in.

"Look, thank you both for your concern and I'm sorry it worried Groot. Quill and I will work together just as well as normal, and it won't happen again, okay?"  
"I ain't concerned about you, Sweetheart, I just ain't up for a mutiny on Quill." Rocket declared before turning his back to her and heading back down the corridor.

Mantis offered her a smile that indicated they both knew Rocket was lying, and Gamora returned it, glad to have moved away from the topic of reading her emotions.

"Do you know where Groot is? I want to check that he's alright." She asked.

"I do not, I apologise." The girl looked momentarily distraught not the have been able to help.

"It's fine, Mantis," Gamora waved it off, "I'll go and look for him."

They smiled at one another a final time, before Mantis nodded gracefully, and followed Rocket down the corridor.

Gamora sighed as she collected her other boot from where she had thrown it, and set off to find Groot.

* * *

Gamora slumped back in her chair as she added another successfully removed wooden brick to the pile in front of her, lamenting internally how inexhaustible Groot was now that he was so small. As Groot hopped across the table to examine the now precariously balancing tower, Gamora let her eyes drift to the other side of the table, where Peter was carefully bandaging the bleeding gash on his arm, first watching his deft fingers wrapping the fabric over his injury, then the strong muscles of his arms and shoulders, tensed from pain and concentration, and finally the intense focus in his eyes.

"I am Groot!" the little creature chirped cheerfully, waving another successfully removed brick for her to appreciate his success.

She smiled at him indulgently, and watched from the edge of her vision as Peter held his arm away from him to examine his work, before pushing back his chair to rest on its back legs, so that he could reach over and turn the speakers on. As Mr Blue Sky began playing Gamora forced herself to focus on Groot, who was watching her with anticipation, as were Mantis and Drax, who were both unable to understand the purpose of the Terran game Peter had bought at a market they had stopped at several weeks ago. Choosing her target carefully, she began to position her hand so as to remove it with the least effect on the overall structure.

"Don't-"

Peter stopped abruptly.

"What?" Gamora asked, ignoring how her heart sped up under the intensity of his stare.

"It's just I think that's a bad call, is all." He answered casually, dropping the stare and leaning his chair onto its back legs again.

"I have calculated it perfectly. It is the least risk to remove."

Peter chuckled in response, "Be my guest."

Determined to prove the smirking man wrong, she focused, and carefully extracted the brick, barely touching the rest of the structure. As she pulled it free she turned to him triumphant,

"You were saying, Quill?"

Groot had jumped forward, eager for his turn but Peter held out his uninjured arm to stop him.

"Wait a sec, Groot."

Groot and Gamora joined Drax and Mantis in their puzzled expressions, as Peter kept his hand held to indicate they should wait. After only a few seconds the tower wobbled slightly, and then completely collapsed, clattering to the table with a noise even the music couldn't drown out.

"Always go for the middle bricks, Gamora. Never take an edge one if you don't have to." Peter laughed from across the table. When he turned to high-five Groot who was dancing around in the pile of bricks Gamora found she couldn't be angry that he had sabotaged the game against her. She felt a wide smile pull across her cheeks as she watched the interaction, the stress of the mission and an injured Peter washing off.

She suddenly realised that Mantis was by her side, holding out her hand in a familiar gesture.

"I want to understand what you are feeling?" she asked, wide eyes assuring Gamora that all she wanted was understanding, but still she couldn't do it, she knew now what Mantis would see, she wasn't ready for everyone to know that, she wasn't ready for _him_ to know that.

"You can read mine if you want, Mantis?" Peter offered.

The girl gratefully darted to his side of the table and rested her hand on his. As Mantis read his emotions, Peter looked right at Gamora. She tried to smile at him, to show him with her eyes that she was grateful, but he simply shot back a knowing look.

* * *

"Can I ask you something?" Peter asked, breaking the comfortable silence.

They were alone in the control room. Manually steering the ship wasn't necessary, but she knew that Peter enjoyed doing it, just as she knew watching the brightly coloured planets sail by from the large windows was equally unnecessary, but she still did it.

"You just did." She replied, as haughtily as she could.

"That's my joke!" Peter declared, but he laughed all the same.

The companionable silence returned, but she had to know what he had been going to ask.

"What was your question?"

"Oh yes," Peter replied, turning the ship to autopilot and spinning his seat so that he was facing her, his long legs stretched out in front of him almost reaching her feet. "I was gonna ask, Mantis says you've still never let her read your emotions?"

Gamora suddenly felt as though ice water was dripping down her back.

"That is correct." She replied, trying not to sound harsh.

"Never ever?" Peter asked, teasingly.

"No."

"Why?" he questioned, he put on a tone of genuine confusion, but something in the way he asked made her suspect he was hiding a smirk.

Gamora stared fiercely at a section of the wall over his shoulder, not trusting herself to answer.

"Hang on, I'll be back in a minute." Peter declared, before jumping out of the seat and bounding out of the room. Feeling slightly ridiculous sitting alone in the passenger seat, Gamora stood and began to pace, no longer noticing the brightly coloured planets they were passing by. Peter returned a few minutes later, with Mantis trailing along behind him. He stopped in front of her, smiling in a way that reminded her of Groot when Peter carried him on his shoulders.

"Peter says I am to read your emotions." Mantis mumbled, avoiding her eyes.

"This is your opportunity," Peter offered. "You can get it over with and then you won't have to worry about it in the future."

Knowing she couldn't refuse him when he looked at her like that, she took a deep breath, and forced her head to nod the smallest amount. She saw Mantis' large eyes light up, and she scurried over, reaching out her hand. Gamora had to concentrate on not shoving it away. She offered the girl her arm, suddenly unable to breathe as the smaller hand rested on top of hers and Mantis' antennae glowed. Peter stood directly in front of her, watching her so intensely that she didn't know if it was Mantis' empath skills or his gaze that was causing her heart to thump painfully in her chest. She broke Peter's stare, and made herself look at Mantis.

The excited hope in her eyes told her she knew. Gamora felt her stomach churning as she realised that she had been found out.

"Well?" Peter prompted, bouncing on his toes.

"She feels love."

Gamora slammed her eyes closed, she would rather not witness this.

"Love for who?" she heard Peter ask, his tone carefully controlled.

"For you." Mantis answered, the sound of her voice indicating that she had turned to face Peter.

She heard Peter exhale heavily, before a muttered thanks to Mantis, and the sound of her footsteps receding to the door. Her eyes were still tightly shut when she felt her hands being lifted, and she opened her eyes to find Peter much closer than she had expected. She was surprised she hadn't felt his breathe on her face.

"Gamora…" he said, his eyes searching hers.

Then his lips were on hers, his arms around her waist and she let herself relax against him. When they finally broke apart he rested his forehead on hers, their breath mingling together, and he said quietly,

"You know we could have cleared this up ages ago…"

"Shut up, Quill" she laughed, and she kissed him again.


End file.
